Learning With Miss Nicole

Friday, 25 March 2016

Something I
found interesting throughout my EDUC 4P27 course is the concept of transdisciplinary
learning. This is an approach to teaching that moves beyond the disciplines
and traditional planning. It begins with student interests and real-world
problems, as opposed to pre-determined curriculum objectives (Drake, Reid,
& Kolohon, 2014). Students and teachers decide on appropriate and relevant
objectives. This approach also relates to inquiry based learning where students
create their own questions to investigate.

In the below
video, Alan Shusterm, the founder of “School for Tomorrow”, discusses the
challenges of subject based learning. For example, students can get confused or
frustrated when trying to understand what skills should be used when (STF, 2013).
An example of this is when students complete an assignment in science class but
are also marked for spelling and grammar. Shusterm is concerned that
children are not prepared for real world problems and expectations. He suggests
that real world problems and real world questions are inherently
transdisciplinary (SFT, 2013). I believe that transdisciplinary learning can
help prepare students for real world expectations, because curriculum subjects
are not separate, discrete concepts. There is a great deal of overlap and
interconnectedness between subjects and we can highlight that in our teaching.

Shusterm also
discusses that research demonstrates that the learning process will be enhanced
when the content is meaningful to students (SFT, 2013). Therefore I think
transdisciplinary learning can be motivating by helping make learning more
meaningful for students and putting their interests first. Transdisciplinary
learning also relates to real world problems, which makes learning very
applicable for students. Learning should be relevant and authentic so it can be
more meaningful for students.

In lecture we
learned about a unique way to teach called topic based learning or phenomena
based learning. This similar to transdisciplinary learning as students
choose topics that are important to them, and subjects are not taught
separately but are interwoven within activities. This approach is popular in
Finland school boards where students are encouraged to use and apply information,
instead of simply memorizing it. In the video bellow they discuss a great
example of how to incorporate phenomena based learning into the classroom (Wise
Channel, 2015).

In this example,
children were able to demonstrate technological skills and the ability to work
in a multicultural environment. The video emphasized the importance of students
learning skills they will use in the future. I think education should be
authentic and practical. When reflecting on my elementary experiences,
practical real world lessons stuck with me and were the most engaging. For
example, when I was in grade 5 we held a mock election to learn about how
elections and campaigning work. This was a fun and innovative way for us to
learn.

Although I think
that transdisciplinary learning is a great approach, I do see how it can be
difficult to implement. Curriculum expectations are very extensive and planning
can be very challenging. This form of teaching can appear overwhelming and time
consuming. With so many expectations to meet for each subject area, planning
beyond the subjects and interweaving them may be difficult. However, you could
also look at this from another perspective, where transdisciplinary teaching
allows teachers to teach multiple subjects at once and frees up more time for
discovery and inquiry. I think more teachers could implement transdisciplinary
skills if they were better informed on the practice. I also think that teachers
would need to make this transition gradually in order to ensure a successful
bridge between more traditional ways of teaching and transdisciplinary
learning.

Saturday, 20 February 2016

I
have heard the phrase ‘teaching to the test’ many times before but as I did not
know the real meaning of it, it sounded like a good thing. I have a feeling
that I am not the only one who thought so, so I think it is important to clear
up some of the confusion.

Assessment
expert W. James Popham defined two kinds of assessment-aware instruction:
‘curriculum teaching’ and ‘item-teaching’ (Popham, 2001). Curriculum teaching
focuses on full body knowledge and skills, and the test that follows only has a
sample of questions that assess students’ knowledge about the topic. According
to Drake, Reid and Kolohon (2014) this form of teaching prepares students for
the test, rather than teaching to the test.

Conversely, item
teaching consists of very narrow instruction based on specific questions that
are likely to be found on the test. In other words, only teaching the bits of
knowledge that students would be tested on. This is what the phrase ‘teaching to
the test’ refers to. Some teachers choose to take part in this unethical form
of teaching because they are afraid that their students’ low grades may reflect
poorly on themselves. Thinking back to my elementary and high school years, I
distinctly remember being taught how to solve very specific types of problems
prior to my EQUA testing, and very specific types of writing styles prior to my
OSSLT, and I believe there are many issues with that.

Firstly, teaching
to the test misrepresents how many students have actually grasped the topic,
and this diminishes the validity of the test (Popham, 2001). However, it goes
way beyond that, another significant concern is how it affects curriculum and
classroom instruction itself. Teachers who practice this method spend weeks or
months preparing for the test, which takes away from curriculum teaching.

Resnick and
Zurawsky (2005) suggest that drill-focused forms of teaching to the test can get
rid of opportunities to teach students more advanced cognitive skills, such as
how to solve problems and communicate effectively. They point to the work of
Levy and Murnane (2004), who claim that all kinds of jobs, but particularly
higher paying jobs, require fewer rote and routine skills and more complex
skills. They argue that young people who are denied the opportunity to develop
such advanced skills will be at an increasing disadvantage in the changing
economy of the 21st century (Levy & Murnane, 2004). That means educators
who settle for "drill and kill" instruction, or who do not at least
balance such instruction with more complex assignments, are trading long-term
benefits for students for short-term gains on standardized tests.

Drake, Reid and
Kolohon (2014) give the following suggestions for preparing students for a test
rather than teaching to the test:

Do not teach students the exact
items that will be on the test.

Give students practice with
question formats prior to testing.

Bear in mind that there are
times when students are able to perform better on tests than others.

Give students information about
the nature of test.

(Drake, Reid & Kolohon, 2014, pg. 162)

Clearly,
teaching to the test is a big no no, but there is definitely a lesson to be
learned from it. I believe this whole problem stems from standardized testing,
which has recently also been well known as a big no no among educators.
Standardized tests do not take into account student individualities, and lead
to a one-size-fits-all curriculum. These tests encourage a cookie-cutter
approach and as long as they exist, and there are high-stake tests such as them,
teachers are going to prepare students in whatever way they can, which leads to
teaching to the test.

Overall, this entire problem stems from one thing: our
education system is not changing as our students and society change. For that
reason, I thought it was very interesting what Levy and Murnane (2004)
postulated. Teaching to the test does not allow students to learn the 21st
century skills that they will need in their futures, and in order to put a stop
to this unethical form of teaching, we need to stop putting educators under the
spot light and placing so much pressure on them. We need to focus on what is
important; and that is the success of our students in our rapidly changing
society.

Tuesday, 12 January 2016

It’s
funny, I’ve had this blog for about 3 months now, and I completely forgot to
introduce myself! So here it goes… Hello! My name is Nicole and I am an
aspiring teacher in her fourth year of a Concurrent Education program in the
Primary/Junior level at Brock University. Yes, that means only 1 year of
teacher’s college between adult responsibilities and me. These four years have
passed so quickly, I am not sure if I am ready to give up being a student.
However, I am excited to have students of my own!

Throughout
these four years I have definitely gained a lot of knowledge that will help me
as a future educator. In first year I learned a lot of educational theories
that I did not know how to apply just yet. However as the years progressed we
learned more practical strategies and methods that we can use in our
classrooms. An important and evolving theme that began circulating in my fourth
year is the idea of 21st century skills. One of the most discussed skills has
been technology skill, but we have not touched much upon 21st century
literacies.

In
the past, the concept of literacy meant having the skill to interpret squiggles
on a piece of paper as letters which, when put together, formed words that
conveyed meaning. However, in today’s world, being literate requires much, much
more than the traditional literacy of the past. In this day and age there are
many new literacies such as critical literacy, media literacy, financial
literacy, mental health literacy, and much more.

The
shift into our screen-based society is causing a drastic change in our
students, and as our students have changed, teachers need to alter teaching
methods and topics accordingly. That said, I am really glad we are learning
about these literacies, as I have not learned much about them in the past. In
order to help our students thrive in the world of 21st century
literacy, we, as future educators, need to become fluent in the language of
newer technologies and incorporate more modern thinking about literacy.

Tuesday, 3 November 2015

I don’t know about you, but my
entire life is basically made up of lists. To-do lists. Grocery lists. Homework
lists. Packing lists. You name it; I got a list for it. But they’re not just
any lists, they’re checklists. It is such a satisfying feeling to check
something off; it almost acts as an extrinsic motivation for me to finish
something. Even if you may not be as serious about lists as I am, I am sure you
have used one at some point in your life. Whether it has been a simple packing
checklist or a more detailed checklist to ensure you're on the right track for
your school assignment, we have all used one. Personally, I find that I am able
to stay on track a lot more successfully when I am following a checklist.

As future educators, using checklists in
your classroom can be very beneficial for not only you as a teacher but your
students as well (Drake, Reid and Kolohon, 2014). Drake, Reid and Kolohon
(2014) discuss how checklists can be beneficial to student learning. They focus
on summary checklists, which give students steps that need to be met in order
to meet the goals of a specific project. This is something that I found very
successful not only in my personal life, but in my camp classroom as well. Typically,
I would create a checklist for each assignment that I gave them, and they knew
that before asking me what the next step is, or claiming that they are ‘done’,
they had to look over the checklist and go over each step. Additionally, this
allowed them to brake down something bigger into smaller parts, making them
feel like they were accomplishing something with each item on the list that
they got to check off.

The use of checklists is so beneficial
for providing students with a tool that can help them to scaffold their
learning (Rowlands, 2007). Rowlands discusses much of this in her paper Check It Out!
Using Checklists to Support Student Learning. She emphasizes the importance
of using these operational checklists to encourage independent thinking
(Rowlands, 2007). I believe this is a fundamental part of encouraging inquiry
based learning, which is a very beneficial way for students to learn.

Considering that during this time and age
technology is all that is talked about, and is practically unavoidable, I
thought it would be appropriate to share this great app with you. Wunderlist is a mobile app checklist that can create anything from a simple
‘to do’ lists to more complex subtask based lists. You can leave notes, set
recurring tasks, share your lists and set alarms. The app lets you break big
projects or tasks into manageable smaller goals, which is exactly what our
students need! It can sync across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, Windows and the
web, allowing you to take your lists everywhere! I don’t know about you, but I
am ALWAYS that person who forgets the grocery list at home… and now, the
solution to all my problems has landed in my lap! And not only will your
students have no excuses (“my dog ate my
list!!”), their parents/guardians will be able to see these lists too, so
they will have access to all the expectations if they are interested. It’s a
win-win all around; you almosthave to use it in your classroom!

In the following short video, a teacher discussed
her implementation of a peer assessment checklist so that student's can receive
feedback on their letter writing skills.

She emphasizes that this assessment
technique has helped her students to view her more as a 'coach' and less as a
'teacher who knows it all'. That comment has really resonated with me because
it completely represents how I want to be viewed by my students as a teacher. I
hope that I will be able to help my students learn without making them feel
like I know everything (because the truth is that none of us know EVERYTHING).

Overall, I think that checklists are very
beneficial tools that help students become accustomed to following steps,
accomplishing complex tasks, feeling in control, staying focused, and
understanding details and goals. For more information on the benefits that
checklists can provide for improving student learning, read Kristin Marino’s article, as she too believes that checklists are a must!

Sunday, 4 October 2015

As I
mentioned in my previous post, these past few summers I worked at a literacy
camp. It was a 6 week program, and although some campers stayed the same
throughout the entire 6 weeks, there were many that changed weekly. This made
getting to know my campers that much harder.

Since each student is so unique, I had to make
the lessons connect to their interests and experiences so that they would be
engaged and it was relevant to them (Drake, Reid and Kolohon, 2014). This was
simple to do with the campers that stayed all 6 weeks, because I developed such
amazing relationships with them, and I knew all their likes and dislikes.
However, it was very difficult to create that same relationship with the
campers that changed weekly because there just was not enough time to get to
know them well enough. Just as I finally felt like I was creating a
relationship with a camper, and knew how to modify and adapt things to their
needs, it would be Friday, and I wouldn’t see them again until next summer.
Then, on Monday, I’d have to start all over again…

One of my favourite ice-breaker games
that I used to play with my campers was something called ‘People Bingo’. The
goal of the game was to find someone who fulfills your bingo squares in a line,
like bingo. I would always participate in this game, because I thought it was a
really great way to get to know my campers, and for them to get to know me!
Below is an example of a People Bingo board, but there can obviously be many
variations to it!

Luckily, the school year is not quiet as
short as camp, and you have the same students for almost 10 months. So teachers
should have no excuse! Getting to know your students is like a secret weapon;
there are many benefits to it, and it is really very simple to do! In the following video, Danny Brassel
discusses the importance of opening up to your students so that they would open
up to you. I really enjoyed his speech, and I think you would too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjeY6Nu4IAs

Not only is getting to know your students
important because it allows you to tailor your lessons to their individual
needs but it also helps decrease behavioral problems. Education World (2012) claims that “building positive relationships with your students is the
number one way to forestall any behavioral problems that can arise in the
classroom”. This is true for multiple reasons. Firstly, creating this
relationship will allow your students to know you better, and have more respect
for you. The more they respect you, the more they will behave in your classroom
(Education World, 2012). Secondly, by getting to know your students you show
that you care about them. You show them that you are willing to take time out
of your day to talk to them, and learn about them. This makes them like you,
not just as a teacher, but also as a person, and they will likely not want to
disappoint you by misbehaving (Education World, 2012). Additionally, by knowing
your students and their personalities, you have a better understanding of how
they will interact with one another. This will help you when you are creating
groups, and you would be able to predict which student partnerships will result
in behavioural problems, and as a result you can diffuse the situation before
it happens (Education World, 2012).

I can definitely say that I saw this
phenomenon happen right before my eyes at camp. The campers that I had for all
6 weeks were much better behaved than those that were only there for 1-2 weeks,
and that can certainly be an extension of the fact that I developed such
significant relationships with them.

Furthermore, the importance of getting to
know your students is not restricted to in-person classrooms. With the current
rapid rise in technology, online classrooms are becoming more and more popular.
Jodie Ginsbach (2015) has been an online educator for almost 7 years at an
online public charter school for students in grades K-12. Here she discusses
her initial worries about not being able to develop that relationship with her
students in an online environment, and how easy it was to her surprise. She was
able to establish a bond with her students in a virtual setting, and she was
actually able to get more one-on-one interaction with her students in this
setting than when she was in a traditional classroom.

The difference that a good relationship
with your students can make would surprise you! Listen to Simon, try it!

Ginsbach, J. (2015, September
30). What’s it like to be an online teacher? [Web blog post]. Retrieved from
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/local/stayton/opinion/2015/09/30/whats-like-online-teacher/72713110/